Sriracha: Adding Some Spice to the Exterior

It’s time for another update on Sriracha, Mario’s Fiesta ST! With the drive train’s modifications covered in the last post, today we’ll shift our attention to the exterior. As previously mentioned we had a fairly short window of time between the day that the car was picked up and the first show that it was scheduled to enter (about two and a half months to be exact), so parts were being ordered and installed at a pretty steady rate. While we will specifically discuss the exterior’s changes in today’s entry, you will notice the wheels and ride height change part way through as well – these will be looked at in detail in a future update. Because of the short amount of time we had to fit everything, there will be some overlap in regards to what is seen in the photos because so much was going on at once.

Also, I couldn’t resist the corny title. Sorry!

Mario’s plans call for yet more work to be carried out in the following seasons but in the meantime he has managed to quickly and effectively differentiate the car from other Fiesta STs with some carefully selected parts and accents.

It started the day that the car was picked up, when he made two small changes to the exterior almost immediately; the stock antenna was replaced with a stubby piece he had brought back from a trip to Japan, and the Fiesta badge was removed to clean up the hatch.

Since the car would be (and now is) driven in winter he made sure to have plenty of it covered in paint protection film, including but not limited to the front bumper, fenders, hood, and mirrors. When the snow falls our roads get coated in gravel, so this way he won’t have to worry about the paint receiving chips which is especially important given the complexity of the Molten Orange finish. Adding to the protected areas, during one of our install days I also covered his fog lights in film to protect them from debris since he had previously had a fog light on his Focus get smashed by a rock.

It was at this point that the larger pieces started arriving, with the first to go on being a front splitter from Mountune which Mario painted with bedliner just as he had with the splitter on his Focus – spot repairs are very easy to blend in should they ever be needed. Said splitter also nicely leads in to the carbon fiber fifteen52 side skirt extensions which peek out from underneath the factory side skirts (they were not yet installed in this photo) – adding a lot to the appearance of the car without getting in the way of hoist arms when it’s time to lift it up.

There are currently no additions to the rear bumper of Sriracha, but look up higher and you’ll find more carbon fiber (because one can never have enough!) from fifteen52 in the form of their wing extension, sitting on top the OEM wing which has been lifted and angled with Boomba wing risers.

One thing which Mario wants to look into further down the road are some more substantial lighting upgrades – especially in the headlight department – but the Fiesta has received some new bulbs for now, which were left over from project STedan’s original tail lights. Stealth turn signal bulbs remove the “egg yolks” from the tail lights and projector LEDs offer more substantially more light when reversing, while also looking cooler if you ask us. Little things matter!

Speaking of little things mattering, Mario also threw on some window visors to deflect the wind and rain. Many may not really consider these ‘mods’ but we are big fans of having them on our cars as they are just nice to have for daily driving. You can also see part of the windshield banner the FiST received, helping with both branding and keeping the sun out of Mario’s eyes.

One of the final changes to be made prior to the Sunday School show were some small vinyl accents on the rear doors. As you may have noticed in some of the previous photos the car had a set of black door protectors which were a dealer-installed accessory. Whoever applied them to the car originally placed the rear door pieces too far forward, causing them to get damaged whenever the doors were opened. Mario had an idea though and instead of getting them replaced, removed them. In their place we applied some gloss black vinyl which was cut to follow the lines started by the remaining bump strips. Each features the fifteen52 and officialThreeTwenty logos cut out of them, resulting in a subtle change that many people miss, but those that look closer notice the logos with the factory orange paint showing through.

This now wraps up the exterior modifications but of course there’s still more to come! With a license plate like YO LOW the Fiesta naturally couldn’t stay at stock height – nor could it stay on stock wheels given it’s a fifteen52 car! Its altitude adjustment and shoe swap will be looked at in proper detail in its next update here on Project-ST, as we continue exploring the speedy transformation the car underwent in its first few months in Mario’s ownership.